Immediately after the removal of Russia in most sports, it was clear that cross-country skiing would suffer perhaps the most. Our athletes played the most important role there and competed with Norway in absolutely all disciplines. What can I say if Alexander Bolshunov won three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, and Natalya Nepryaeva took the Big Crystal Globe at the end of last season.
When there are at least two competing countries, it is already interesting. Moreover, both ours and the Norwegians regularly let out barbs in the press towards each other, and sometimes literally collided with their foreheads on the ski slopes. This created intrigue and attracted fans to the stands and TV screens. But the International Ski Federation could not resist the recommendations of the IOC and removed the Russian team from participation in the World Cup.
The consequences were understood by everyone. FIS sometimes received information that the organization wants to find a way to still allow our athletes in one form or another to international starts. But all these initiatives collapsed against a concrete wall of politicians who twisted their fingers to their heads and strongly advised not to engage in amateur activities. As a result, Russia went to compete with itself. And I must admit that the races at the Cup of the country are still turning out to be more than curious.
In men, the young talent Savely Korostelev is tearing everyone apart, who even manages to defeat Bolshunov. For women, Veronika Stepanova and Natalya Nepryaeva put on one tough battle after another. The leaders of world skiing had a glimmer of hope that their competition would not turn into a Norwegian championship. However, these hopes were brutally destroyed at the beginning of the season, and the men’s race in Lillehammer put an end to this issue.
There were nine representatives of Norway in the top ten. The only one who managed to destroy these slender ranks was Briton Andrew Musgrave, who became the fourth. The irony is that Musgrave has been training in Norway for a very long time and actually uses the same methods. So the results of this race at the World Cup can only be called a disaster. Everyone in the FIS sees this very well, they are not fools. It’s just that they can’t do anything.
The longer the suspension of the Russian team continues, the deeper the world’s skis will dig themselves. One can, of course, hope that over time the Swedes, Finns, Germans, and someone else will catch up, but all this is not a matter of the immediate future. So the question of the return of Russian skiers will inevitably be raised in the press and in the governing structures of the FIS. And as soon as the ice breaks in relation to the lifting of sanctions, skiing will be the first to return Russia to the world sport.
Alexander Govorov